Macquarie Group, State Street and JP Morgan have all been linked with the sale of Deutsche Bank’s asset management business which includes the RREEF real estate arm.
Private equity firms including Apax, Aquiline Capital Partners and financial services firm Ameriprise Financial are also rumoured to be interested in the disposal which was announced in November last year.
According the Financial Times, the German bank is poised to narrow down a shortlist of half a dozen bidders to the final two or three within days, with the aim of concluding a deal in March.
Deutsche is hoping to sell the business for as much as £2bn.
Some bidders, such as State Street and JPMorgan, are thought to be interested in the entire business, while Australian group Macquarie is reported to be interested only in parts such as RREEF.
The businesses for sale include DB Advisors, an institutional money-management unit, which has €163bn (£135bn) in client assets; Deutsche Insurance Asset Management oversees €142bn; RREEF, which specialises in property and infrastructure investments, has €45bn; and the DWS mutual-fund units in the Americas which has about €42bn.
